Get URI from PodPress using PHP

Question

We're using podpress as our podcast player, but we'd like to give the option to download the file on a page without a player. So I'm trying to figure out how to extract the URI from the metadata.

I'm new to PHP, and struggling to learn it, so I've gotten this far:

<?php  
    $custom_fields = get_post_custom(get_the_ID());
    $my_custom_field = $custom_fields['_podPressMedia'];
    foreach ( $my_custom_field as $key => $value ){
        echo $key . " => " . $value . "<br />";
    }
?>

which outputs

0 => a:1:{i:0;a:10:{s:3:"URI";s:85:"http://www.writingexcuses.com/wp-content/uploads/Writing_Excuses_8_1_Microcasting.mp3";s:5:"title";s:33:"Writing Excuses 8.1: Microcasting";s:4:"type";s:9:"audio_mp3";s:4:"size";i:12759440;s:8:"duration";s:5:"17:43";s:12:"previewImage";s:86:"http://legacieslost.com/writing/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/vpreview_center.png";s:10:"dimensionW";i:0;s:10:"dimensionH";i:0;s:3:"rss";s:2:"on";s:4:"atom";s:2:"on";}}

So I can see the data I want right there, and I know I need to create another function that takes the first result and extracts just the value with the key URI, but I can't figure out what that function should look like. I haven't really figured out "array thinking" yet, despite a lot of time looking at this page on the PHP manual.

http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php

Any advice on construction?

Answer 1

$meta = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), '_podPressMedia', true);
$meta = maybe_unserialize($meta);
if (is_array($meta) && count($meta) > 0)
    foreach($meta as $item){
        //do something...
    }

Please, do not use unserialize/serialize with php data stored structures there is native maybe_serialize/maybe_unserialize. Retriving single value from postmeta table also doesn't require get_post_custom, all you need to do to use get_post_meta whish will return only required meta key data assinged to the post.

Answer 2

EDIT: using the get_post_meta() returns an unserialized array, re: post from Oleg Butuzov. Thanks! -- I updated the code examples.

The output of the array is serialized and must be unserialized before you can access the information with php.

After some help from this post I was able to use unserialize(); to access the uri.

  <?php 
      //grabs the array with the meta fields of podPress for a particular post or page.
      $pp_array = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), '_podPressMedia', true);

      $pp_array = $pp_array[0];
  ?>

  <a href="<?php echo esc_attr($pp_array["URI"]) ?>" title="<?php echo esc_attr($pp_array["title"]);?>.mp3">Download</a>

For those who are curious, here is the result of $pp_array.

Step 1:

$pp_array = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), '_podPressMedia', true);
var_dump($pp_array);


RETURNS

array(1) { [0]=> array(10) { ["URI"]=> string(85) "http://www.writingexcuses.com/wp-content/uploads/Writing_Excuses_8_1_Microcasting.mp3" ["title"]=> string(33) "Writing Excuses 8.1: Microcasting" ["type"]=> string(9) "audio_mp3" ["size"]=> int(12759440) ["duration"]=> string(5) "17:43" ["previewImage"]=> string(86) "http://legacieslost.com/writing/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/vpreview_center.png" ["dimensionW"]=> int(0) ["dimensionH"]=> int(0) ["rss"]=> string(2) "on" ["atom"]=> string(2) "on" } } - See more at: http://www.writingexcuses.com/season-archives/izzy-detective/#sthash.jr9uR8xx.dpuf

Step 2:

$pp_array = $pp_array[0];
var_dump($pp_array);

RETURNS

array(10) { ["URI"]=> string(85) "http://www.writingexcuses.com/wp-content/uploads/Writing_Excuses_8_1_Microcasting.mp3" ["title"]=> string(33) "Writing Excuses 8.1: Microcasting" ["type"]=> string(9) "audio_mp3" ["size"]=> int(12759440) ["duration"]=> string(5) "17:43" ["previewImage"]=> string(86) "http://legacieslost.com/writing/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/vpreview_center.png" ["dimensionW"]=> int(0) ["dimensionH"]=> int(0) ["rss"]=> string(2) "on" ["atom"]=> string(2) "on" } - See more at: http://www.writingexcuses.com/season-archives/izzy-detective/#sthash.iiQ43LEp.dpuf 

Step 3:

<p><?php echo $pp_array["URI"];?></p>

RETURNS

http://www.writingexcuses.com/wp-content/uploads/Writing_Excuses_8_1_Microcasting.mp3